A small problem and some solutions

by Tracyanne

A couple of weeks ago my primary computer's video card died, it had been displaying signs that it was on the out for a while, but it finally gave up the ghost and refused to display anything intelligible, so now it's in the workshop waiting for a new card to arrive from Taiwan.

In the mean time I've resurrected my partners old laptop and installed the hard drive from my machine into it. This required that I reinstall the OS as my machine is 64 bit , and this machine is 32 bit. However there are a few small problems, the display on my partner's old machine has missing pixels and a few missing keys, and the sound doesn't seem to work.

My initial solution to this problem was to use my net book connected to an external monitor and accessing the other machine via X over SSH. In that manner I have a fully functional keyboard and can view the desktop on a large high resolution monitor (1920x1080).

When using X over SSH my desktop looks like this:

With the net book's panel at the bottom and the panel from the other computer's desktop at the top. I'm running Ubuntu Studio with LXDE on the net book and Linux Mint KDE 32 bit on my partner's old machine, but I've installed XFCE panel for this exercise. The email client's GUI is being accessed over the network.

I've was told that VNC is faster than X over SSH, so I decided to try VNC. For my purposes it's not necessary to tunnel VNC over SSH, as it is all operating over my LAN, so I haven't bothered with that set up.

I installed several different VNC servers and clients, until I found a combination that I was happy with. With the server running on the other computer and the client running on my net book.

My desktop looks like this:

This is the desktop of the other computer, the VNC client is set to display at full screen with a resolution of 1920x1050 (on 1920x1080 resolution monitor). To access the desktop of the net book I have to run the VNC client at a smaller resolution, and not utilise full screen in the VNC client.

From my perspective, there are a few issues with VNC.

1. I can't use VNC at full screen, if I want to also access the desktop of the net book.
2. I'm not seeing any performance gains, over my LAN, and the display shows obvious refresh activity, which leads me to believe displaying a full desktop over a network may actually be slower than displaying the content of a single window, as X over SSH does.
3. I have noticed that one or the other of the two machines, appears to lose connection with the Wireless LAN, often enough that it causes problems for both X over SSH and VNC, with the problem magnified by the need to refresh the display in the client periodically, when using VNC.

Based on my experiences with VNC and X over SSH, I think I prefer X over SSH, it seems to recover from the momentary drop outs better than VNC. However, neither seems to provide me with the elegant solution I am looking for.

I remembered another potential solution to my problem, and after some searches on the Internet rediscovered Synergy - http://synergy-foss.org/.

Synergy is an application that enables Mouse and Keyboard sharing between several computers over a network. It it cross platform, so runs on Linux, Mac and Windows. The only potential drawback is that each of those computers must have it's own monitor. Fortunately I have a spare monitor with 1680x1050 capability, which I set up on my desk so that I have 2 monitors, one above the other, with the 1920x1080 monitor connected to my net book on top.

I installed Synergy 1.3.8, but this version proved to be very buggy,. Every time I used a Control key, such as SHIFT or CTRL while I was using the client machine, the synergy client would crash, and I would have to restart it after physically attaching a mouse and keyboard to the machine. Running the 1.3.8 version of Synergy client as a daemon with –restart enabled made no difference.

After some more Internet research I discovered that there is a fixed version of Synergy 1.4.10 available in the Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) backports, so I upgraded both the server (my net book) and the client machine to Synergy 1.4.10. Now it works correctly and I can use the Control keys.

My Desktop looks something like this:

Top Monitor:

Bottom Monitor:

This set up works quite well, although if I shut down the client machine I do have to move the keyboard connector (USB) to a USB port on it, in order to Log In.

The Synergy client starts Automatically on start up. I added the command

synergyc --restart --daemon brenda

to Session and startup. As does the Synergy Server with

synergys -c /home/tracy/.synergy/synergy.conf

added to Session and Startup on the server machine (my net book).

This arrangement works very well for my purposes. The only other issue I had was accessing files on the client machine. This I achieved using SSHFS on the server to access the client machine's file system over SSH. I had been doing this when using X over SSH.

It looks something like this:

 

I will most likely connect the two machines via ethernet, as there are still drop outs occasionally (most likely the net book). Though they do not appear to affect the stability of the system.

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Reclaim Your Internet Privacy. Encrypt!

by Dietrich Schmitz

I've written about Retroshare and how to surf anonymously with secure shell in response to the recent outcropping of news flooding the Internet with stories concerning the ongoing practices of our beloved National Security Agency.

There is no shortage of media information and disinformation. You can sort through it and build opinion by consensus across different sources and their relative reliability for giving factual information verses sensationalism.

When it comes right down to it, most everything you do on the Internet is out in the open, or, by explicit or implied consent from you, being shared in some fashion in the name of monetization.

After all, nobody is in business to lose money and if their isn't a good business model for capturing profit then there's no point in being a Capitalist.

In the final analysis, regardless of who you are, what you do on the Internet will be exploited for profit in some fashion as long as there is information to be mined from the stream of data that your activity provides.

To illustrate a point, take Google Drive for instance.

Drive has become a cornerstone of Google's product strategy and the data you store there is in plain human readable clear text. In other words, it is not encrypted.

In fact, Google will not offer a service which encrypts your data.

After all, if your data were encrypted, and you and only you have the private key to unlock it, all of Google's profit from sharing your social activity will cease to exist because they no longer can parse your activity when in an encrypted form. Yes?

This is fundamentally at conflict with your best interests.

I believe that nothing short of your using strong encryption will keep away prying eyes from seeing your personal information.

Encryption is a lock and, when used judiciously, will ensure that your right to privacy on the Internet is upheld even against the NSA.

I have written about how email is fundamentally broken. The government has no interest in it changing since it is clear text and they can read it with impunity and without your knowing along any point it travels across intermediaries to its recipient.

In coming days, I will provide information about what you can do to protect your Internet privacy including useful encryption tools and services.

I hope you will be here to follow along. Remember that encryption is a lock and the only sure fire way you can keep your personal information private--as it should be.

Reclaim your Internet privacy.  Encrypt!

-- Dietrich

Related articles

• RetroShare: For the Paranoid in You!
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• Documents Reveal NSA Reads Your Internet Chats: Here's How to Avoid Being Spied On
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Feeling Paranoid Much? Surf Anonymously Using Secure Shell (ssh)

by Dietrich Schmitz

Seems that we have all caught the paranoia fever which is going around (cough NSA).

I think the level of concern is sufficient and justifiable that puts everyone's Internet Privacy into question.

So, expect my stories to continue to take a bent on security and privacy and what measures can be taken by you to be proactive in seizing control of some aspects of your Internet Privacy.

Not surprisingly, the reality of obtaining true privacy on the Internet requires a mix of technologies, but all have one common denominator: encryption. (Image credit: kean.edu)

Think of encryption as being a lock.  It's your lock on your data or data stream.

So, in this story I'd like to demonstrate how one can, using most any Linux Distribution, secure an anonymous Internet session using Secure Shell (ssh).

Most every Linux Desktop Distribution includes in its tools bundle ssh.  I won't get into why, but suffice it to say that ssh is the standard de rigueur for all manner of system administration.  There are many books written about it.

If you happen to be using Microsoft Windows, you may want to consider installing Cygwin (recommended) or Putty to have secure shell available.

Okay this example will assume you are using Linux.  So here goes.

First step will be for you to establish a shell proxy account.  There are many from which to choose.  Mine is silenceisfeat.com to which I have my own personal login account.

So, with a shell account now in place, we need to establish a connection to it using secure shell.  The connection obtained using ssh establishes an encrypted channel, or, tunnel.

In this example, I am using my own credentials by opening a terminal window and typing:

[dietrich@localhost ~]$ ssh -D 8080 silenceisdefeat.com
dietrich@silenceisdefeat.com's password: 
Last login: Tue May 28 11:36:50 2013 from cpe-24-58-xxx-xxx.twcny.res.rr.com
OpenBSD 5.1 (GENERIC.MP) #188: Sun Feb 12 09:55:11 MST 2012

         _ __   welcome to        _          __     ____           __ 
   _____(_) /__  ____  ________  (_)________/ /__  / __/__  ____ _/ /_
  / ___/ / / _ \/ __ \/ ___/ _ \/ / ___/ __  / _ \/ /_/ _ \/ __ `/ __/
 (__  ) / /  __/ / / / /__/  __/ (__  ) /_/ /  __/ __/  __/ /_/ / /_  
/____/_/_/\___/_/ /_/\___/\___/_/____/\__,_/\___/_/  \___/\__,_/\__/  
        for support visit http://silenceisdefeat.com/support

            Come idle with us on irc.oftc.net's #sd!


                          2012-08-16                    
      
      Upgraded to 5.1
      
      
                          2012-07-31                    
      
      PHP works again in user web space, and your
      scripts now run as your user with suPHP.  Sorry
      that took like a year.
      
      

-bash-4.2$ 

Ok perfect.  Per, the above, we now are connected, or tunneled to the shell account.
Leaving the terminal window open is important, or, your connection will terminate.

Now we need to use a browser which supports proxy configuration.  In this example I show how to set up a proxy with Firefox.  You may have heard of it. ;)

First, load Firefox, then on the menu, go to Edit->Preferences and this window should display:

Firefox Preferences, Select Advanced (top), then the Network Tab

As shown, I have first clicked the Advanced Icon at top, then clicked the Network Tab.  You should see this next window display:

On the Advanced Network Tab, click the Settings button

Selecting the Network Tab and pressing the Settings button should then display this window:

Set to Manual proxy, using port 8080, localhost 127.0.0.1 and SOCKS5

Per the above, I've set the browser to manual proxy using port 8080, localhost 127.0.0.1 and SOCKS5 proxy.  Using SOCKS5 proxy is very important.  It sends all DNS queries through the tunnel, otherwise they would be generated separately and go onto the Internet directly from your localhost machine by-passing the tunnel and would be sniffable by any third-party monitoring your activities.

Once set, click OK, close Firefox and reopen it.  As I know my WAN ip is 24.58.x.x, I am now checking my ip address returned by website whatsmyip.org, which when plugged into website ip2location.com confirms the outbound WAN ip in a Chicago, Illinois location.

Website WhatsMyIp.com returns the ip of my proxy.

Website ip2location.com shows the ip of my browser is in Chicago, Illinois

So, my tunnel from Upstate New York is connecting and going out the other endpoint of the tunnel in far away Chicago.

There you have it.  A simple free way to surf anonymously.

-- Dietrich

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The Awesome Power Of GNU/Linux

By Robert Pogson

Modern computing hardware is awesome. GNU/Linux allows you to have it all. Unlike other operating systems which charge extra for the privilege of using your hardware to its fullest capability, GNU/Linux lets you do everything from Day One for $0, no extra charge, nada...

To focus your mind, consider networking your PCs. Lots of people and organizations have a bunch. They are on a network so you can use them all any way you want, right? Who owns the hardware after all? Look at M$'s EULA:

"The software is not licensed to be used as server software or for commercial hosting ­ for example, you may not make the software available for simultaneous use by multiple users over a network."

Read More